The city of San Jose sued Major League Baseball on Tuesday in an effort to move the Oakland A’s to the South Bay, a lawsuit that challenges the Giants’ claim to the region and MLB’s monopoly over the business of professional baseball.

The San Jose City Council voted behind closed doors Tuesday morning to file a lawsuit. Attorneys for the city then filed the claim in U.S. District Court in San Jose.

The suit follows years of political wrangling by A’s owners John Fisher and Lew Wolff to move the team out of the O.co Coliseum in Oakland.

The lawsuit claims Major League Baseball and its commissioner, Bud Selig, have violated state and federal laws regarding unfair business practices and anticompetitive conduct. It also challenges the exemption to antitrust laws that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld for Major League Baseball in 1922.

“This action arises from the blatant conspiracy by Major League Baseball to prevent the Athletics Baseball Club from moving to San Jose,” the suit says. “This action challenges — and seeks to remedy — defendants’ violation of state laws and use of the illegal cartel that results from these agreements to eliminate competition in the playing of games in the San Francisco Bay Area.”

The A’s are not plaintiffs in the lawsuit. As one of the 30 teams that make up Major League Baseball, the A’s are technically defendants in the case, but the lawsuit specifically does not seek any monetary damages from the club.

Fisher and Wolff have been eager to move the A’s out of the Coliseum, which they complain is outdated and puts the team at a financial disadvantage. The team suffered a public-relations black eye over the weekend when raw sewage flooded locker rooms in the stadium, which opened in 1966 and was expanded in the 1990s.

Wolff, the A’s managing general partner, said he wasn’t aware of the lawsuit until the news broke Tuesday and that he didn’t know if it would help or hinder his pursuit of a ballpark in San Jose.

“I have no details,” he said. “However, I am not in favor of legal actions or legal threats to solve business issues.”

San Jose has threatened in the past to file a suit, he said.

“It’s been brought up several times,” he said. “The city has to make its own decisions.”

The team and San Jose have proposed building a new ballpark near the Diridon train station downtown.

The Giants’ owners, however, have claimed territorial rights to Santa Clara County and have refused to let the A’s move there.
Although a vote by MLB team owners could change that, Selig has delayed any action on the issue, deferring to a committee he appointed to study the issue four years ago.

San Jose officials claim they have lost millions of dollars because of Selig’s actions, including $3.5 million annually in property tax revenue as well as hundreds of jobs. A new ballpark would generate an estimated $130 million in extra spending in the city each year, according to the lawsuit.

A challenge to the antitrust exemption — which gives MLB control over broadcast rights, apparel, stadium vendors, team locations and more — could be a big blow to the business side of professional baseball.

Joseph Cotchett, the private attorney who filed the lawsuit on San Jose’s behalf, said he believes the antitrust exemption would no longer stand up in court.

“Major League Baseball is going to be significantly affected by the loss of the antitrust exemption, and I think this case will be the case to challenge it,” Cotchett said.

The suit also claims that Major League Baseball’s constitution, the sport’s governing framework, expired last year and that owners failed to renew it. That meant any team’s territorial claims also expired, the suit says.

The city also says Major League Baseball has interfered with the 2011 agreement between San Jose and the A’s to purchase the land for a new stadium.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed has expressed increasing frustration over baseball’s delays in resolving the A’s situation. He asked to meet with Selig in April, a request the commissioner denied.

Selig is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

The A’s have been eager to move to a new stadium both in hopes of improving attendance and gaining more revenue through the sale of luxury-box seating. The team has ranked near the bottom in attendance in recent years, although ticket sales have improved this year, with the A’s coming off a playoff season and doing well in the standings again.

One longtime fan, Stephen Chen of San Francisco, said he doesn’t want the team to leave the East Bay but that it’s time for baseball to resolve the situation, one way or the other.

“They’ve been stalling for over four years now,” he said. “Right now everyone’s in limbo and no one is benefiting from it.”